Saint Joseph Catholic Church

After a meeting with Israeli officials, the Latin Patriarchate, led by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, O.F.M., announced it had filed a complaint about “the attacks against local residents and Patriarchate lands in several locations. Following this complaint, the authorities began the necessary actions, including pursuing those responsible and seizing heavy machinery used for land destruction and damage at the site.”

“Protecting Church endowment properties is a red line,” the Patriarchate said. “It will continue to take all legal and administrative steps needed to protect their sanctity, preserve their Church identity, defend their lawful rights, and continue supporting the local people.”

“The Holy Father has called both the Church and Christians engaged in social life to work for the coming of the Kingdom,” Bishop Juan Domingo-Beka Esono Ayang, C.M.F., of Mongomo said in an interview with the Vatican News podcast Nota Ecclesial. “The future is not something to be awaited passively; it calls for the commitment of each and every one of us.”

Auxiliary Bishop Dominic Nguyễn Tuan Anh of Xuân Lộc made his remarks after an April 24 papal audience with Vietnam’s bishops, who were in Rome for their ad limina visit.

“The Vietnamese Church is a family, and in our culture, family is very strong,” the prelate said. “The Church has also been blessed by God’s grace and by the blood of our martyrs ... So we need to unite; we need to unify, and with God’s grace, we can face this challenge in the way of faith, in the way of hope.”

Located in Southeast Asia, Vietnam is a Communist nation of 106.7 million (map) that is 48% Buddhist and 10% Christian, with 12% adhering to ethnic religions.

Citing Pope Francis’s 2018 revision of a paragraph of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV said that “the Church teaches that ‘the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.’“

Pope Leo XIV received leading members of the European People’s Party today and offered advice to Christians engaged in politics: first and foremost, “rediscovering and embracing the Christian heritage from which you come, while still maintaining the necessary distinction between prophetic religious witness—reserved to the ecclesial community—and Christian witness expressed through concrete political choices.”

NBC 5 Chicago reported:

There are no revealed plans for Pope Leo to visit the U.S. any time soon, but was there a time when plans fell through because of the acrimony espoused by the president? Prevost says no.

“I think one thing that has to be made clear is when some newscaster announced that the Pope canceled a trip to the United States. That’s not true,” he said. “At no time, was the Pope planning a trip the United States this year.”

The Pontiff is scheduled to deliver a livestream talk to Americans on July 3, when he receives the Liberty Medal from the National Constitution Center.